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PLATFORM UPDATE29 March 2019 |
IN BRIEF
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2019 GLOBAL FOOD POLICY REPORTCrises in rural areas threaten progress in hunger, poverty reduction; urgent need for rural revitalization, strong policies, and accountability
Marked by deepening cycles of hunger and malnutrition, persistent poverty, limited economic opportunities, and environmental degradation, rural areas continue to be in a state of crisis in many parts of the world. This threatens to slow the progress towards the SDGs, global climate targets, and improved food and nutrition security – this is the key message of the 2019 Global Food Policy Report, which was released on Wednesday by Platform partner International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The majority of the world’s poor and vulnerable population live in rural areas. Rural populations account for 45.3 percent of the world’s total population, but 70 percent of the world’s extremely poor population. The global poverty rate in rural areas is currently 17 percent, more than double the urban poverty rate of 7 percent. Across the continents, rural areas struggle; they remain under-served compared to urban areas and face a wide array of challenges across the globe. Rural Revitalization: Tapping Into New Opportunities “Revitalising rural areas can stimulate economic growth and begin to address the crises in developing countries, and also tackle challenges holding back achievement of the SDGs and climate goals by 2030,” said Shenggen Fan, Director General of IFPRI. “Rural revitalization is timely, achievable, and, most important, critical to ending hunger and malnutrition in just over a decade,” Fan said. “Rural transformation requires a holistic economic approach to connect rural and urban economies. Strengthening these connections can spur growth and diversification in the farm and non-farm sectors, closing socio-economic and quality-of-life gaps between urban and rural areas,” said Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme, and co-author of the lead chapter in the report. This need is described with the term ‘Rurbanomics’, which characterises a development approach premised on the potential of symbiotic rural and urban systems to transform rural areas. Rural–urban links can spur growth and diversification in the agriculture and non-agriculture sectors, increase incomes, support value chain development, and improve well-being. Rural Areas as Innovation Hubs The report emphasizes that rural areas could become premiere hubs of innovations in just under a decade. It recommends revitalizing rural areas with a focus on five building blocks:
• creating farm and non-farm rural employment opportunities; It’s All About Jobs Job creation is critical to reducing poverty in rural areas, especially in the rural areas of Africa south of the Sahara, where poverty is high and youth populations are large. Policies that encourage investments in rural transport networks, telecommunications, and human capital in African countries can prepare rural youth for new jobs in rural and urban areas, and bridge rural-urban gap, according to the report. At the launch event, James Thurlow, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI and a co-author of the report, emphasized the importance of strengthening linkages between the rural and urban population. “The good news is that food demand is rising, creating new job opportunities in agriculture value chains. The other good news is that one-half of rural Africans live one hour from a city of 50,000 inhabitants or more.” Bridging Disparities The report recommends investing efforts in reducing general disparities to ensure that all can participate and benefit from growth and transformation of rural areas. Empowering women can improve agricultural productivity, overall well-being of mothers and children, and increase their capacity to contribute to rural revitalization. Safeguarding Sustainable Natural Environments Beyond economic progress and human capital, rural environments must also be restored and improved to secure the many services they provide. “To engage rural residents as custodians of valuable natural resources, their rights to these resources should be recognized in law and practice”, stated Claudia Ringler, Deputy Division Director at IFPRI and co-author of the report. Good Governance, Good Perspectives The report emphasizes that these policy goals can only be achieved if one invests in good governance. As it continues, three aspects of governance are critical for rural revitalization:
• appropriate and predictable laws and regulations; This year’s report also features chapters on how Europe’s experiences can provide lessons for rural revitalization in developing countries. WEBLINKFOSTERING TERRITORIAL PERSPECTIVE FOR DEVELOPMENTWhite paper jointly released by Platform members and partners
For several years, territorial approaches to development have been spreading within international organisations and among development partners. Territorial approaches are increasingly recognized as a powerful tool for improving development outcomes. The recently released paper aims at enhancing a common understanding of territorial approaches and calls for a wider alliance between development practitioners, researchers, international organisations, donors, and governments for supporting the adoption of territorial perspectives in policy, program, project design and implementation. It draws from the experiences from many stakeholders over the past years. The group joined forces last January 2018 after the international CIRAD conference “Living Territories” held in Montpellier, France. The Platform members and partners involved in the drafting process include European Commission, BMZ, AFD, CIRAD, GIZ, OECD, FAO, UN CDF and NEPAD. Meanwhile other organisations have joined the group. WEBLINKMORE POWERFUL TOGETHERAlone in gender is no solution
“More Powerful Together”, the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day on 8 March recognised the important roles we all play to advance gender equality. A number of Platform members’ activities focused on exactly that: working in collaboration and creating a world where women and girls everywhere have equal rights and opportunities. Undoubtedly, closing gender gaps is a key step to achieving many of the SDGs. Find out more in the following spotlights: CSW 63: Concrete recommendations to move forward with gender equality and women’s rights The sixty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 11 to 22 March 2019. As the single largest forum on gender equality and women’s rights for UN Member States, civil society organizations, and other international actors, this year’s CSW saw a record number of attendances. Participants included more than 5,000 representatives from civil society organizations around the world, nearly 2,000 Member State delegates, and 86 ministers. CSW63 concluded with a strong commitment by UN Member States to safeguard and improve women’s and girls’ access to social protection systems, public services, and sustainable infrastructure, ensuring that their design and delivery is transformed to prevent discrimination and create a ‘level playing field’ for women and girls. New IISD Policy Briefing: The Farmer and her Husband: Legal Innovations for Women in Contract Farming A new policy briefing by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) looks at the changing role of women in contract farming. With this latest publication, the thinktank based in Canada intends to contribute to the discussion on how to use contracts to address gender-related imbalances in farming relationships, along with ensuring better outcomes for women. The policy brief is part of a series devoted to “investment in agriculture” and is supported by Platform member the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). “Contract farming has the potential to reshape the relationships between buyers and farmers, helping rectify long-standing power imbalances while creating economic gains for both parties”, the authors say, who have also observed a worrisome trend. Although women are responsible for the bulk of farm-related work, these contracts typically do not factor in women’s interests, needs, or perspectives. The authors present a set of legal provisions that can help make these contractual relationships more gender-sensitive. These provisions can either be incorporated into new legislation governing contract law or can be used as contractual terms by responsible buyers when they negotiate contracts with farmers. WEBLINK
WORLD BANK LAND AND POVERTY CONFERENCE 2019, WASHINGTON, DCHow to achieve the SDGs and Global Commitments on Land?
Are we on track to secure tenure rights and establish effective and transparent land governance systems by 2030? This broad yet fundamental question was the point of departure used by the Global Donor Working Group on Land (GDWGL) in its session at the World Bank Land Conference 2019, held this Thursday in Washington, DC. The session encouraged participants to provide comments and ideas on how the international community, and particularly donors, can help promote different or innovative approaches to meet the challenge of securing land tenure for all men and women by 2030. “Only 10% of rural land in Africa is registered” is a widely used statistic to highlight the scale of the challenge even if it is, at best, a good estimate. Some data exist, but it is very patchy. All this illustrates the data gap that has made it hard to set global targets and monitor progress. But there is traction in some areas,“ said Chris Penrose Buckley from DFID, chair of the GDWGL. New data to monitor the SDGs and other data sources (e.g. Prindex) that can help promote reforms needed to achieve the SDGs, are now coming online and will enable us to set targets, monitor progress more effectively, and deepen national policy discussions. Live polling in the session showed that 75% of participants agreed that a global target on land linked to SDG indicatotrs would help focus efforts. Mika Torhonen, land tenure specialist in the World Bank, argued that it is important to “get baselines sorted out and agree on something jointly which is more concrete than tenure security for everyone”. However, divergent perspectives from other panellists also resonated. “Global targets are meaningless if they are not built from the bottom up. Each country should have its own targets”, defended Mile Taylor, director from the International Land Coalition. “The target 1.4 says ‘all men and women’, why should we aim at 80%?” noted Jolyne Sanjak, land expert at Tetra Tech ARD. For Fridah Githuku, from the NGO Groots Kenya, the issue goes beyond that of setting a target. “We often assume that all stakeholders are equal – we need to understand the power inequalities and different capacities of those who seek to secure their land”. WEBLINKINFOGRAPHIC OF THE MONTHLess is more but that is not enough: The mitigation potential of climate-smart practices
International discussions on climate change increasingly recognize the importance of agriculture in adaptation and mitigation efforts. Agriculture and land use currently contribute about 24% of global GHG emissions; about half of that (12%) is from agriculture, and the other half from other land use, according to the CDP Climate Change Report 2015. IFAD has recently undertaken an ex ante analysis of the mitigation potential of improved agricultural practices supported by IFAD programmes – with further reaching impact, as IFAD plans to use the results as guidance for the design of future investments. The infographic summarizes the mitigation potential of different climate smart practices, which consider non-flooded crops as well as rice paddies. The numbers in parentheses indicate how many studies support the result. The higher the number is, the more evident a certain practice is with regard to its mitigation potential. WEBLINK
MEMBERS AND PARTNERS STRATEGIES, PUBLICATIONS AND EVENTSNEW PUBLICATIONSDid you know? The key role of women in ensuring food security Climate change mitigation potential of agricultural practices supported by IFAD investors EVENTSTuesday, 2 April 2019 | Brussels, Belgium EU High Level Event on the occasion of the Launch of the Global Report on Food Crises 2019 Friday, 5 April 2019 | Online Presentation and discussion of the recently published OECD working paper on Blended Finance Evaluation: Governance and Methodological Challenges Thursday, 11 April 2019 | Washington D.C., USA The next Roadmap coordination meeting will be on 11 April 2019 at the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring meetings Tuesday, 23 April 2019 | Geneva, Switzerland |
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